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With sales at a dribble, Minnesota is ending its once-ballyhooed prescription-drug service.

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BumRushDaShow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-07-10 07:16 AM
Original message
With sales at a dribble, Minnesota is ending its once-ballyhooed prescription-drug service.
Source: Star Tribune

Six years after launching the nation's first state-sponsored effort to help residents buy low-cost prescription drugs from Canada, Minnesota will close the program.

The service began in 2004, facing dire warnings from federal officials. It will end March 1 in virtual indifference.

All told, Minnesotans bought about 25,000 prescriptions for about $3.3 million through the program, saving an estimated $1.7 million, officials said Wednesday.

But last month, Minnesotans ordered just 50 prescriptions worth $7,000, the least of any month.


Read more: http://www.startribune.com/local/80818647.html?page=1&c=y



So what happened here? Walmart? :shrug:
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caraher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-07-10 08:48 AM
Response to Original message
1. Isn't it obvious?
Clearly, hundreds of Minnesotans died from tainted, dangerous Canadian prescription drugs. As they died off, they stopped refilling their prescriptions. Simple Darwinian natural selection ;)
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BumRushDaShow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-07-10 08:53 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. DUzy!
:rofl:
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ananda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-07-10 09:26 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. The drugs worked and they got well?
nt
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CanonRay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-07-10 09:28 AM
Response to Original message
4. They're all in South Texas
buying their prescriptions in Mexico
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pattmarty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-07-10 09:48 AM
Response to Original message
5. I don't fucking know how the "program" works in Minnesota, but..............
............I have been buying my (costly) prescriptions from Canada on my own for over 10 yrs now for my wife and myself. Not ALL, but the costly ones. Now, whenever I get a new prescription that will be an ongoing cost (not just an antibiotic for a once occurrence toothache) I make a call to "my" Canadian pharmacy.


THIS HAS TO BE THE MOST BULLSHIT THINGS MY COUNTRY HAS DONE TO ME IN MY 63 YRS AS A (NOT SO PROUD) CITIZEN OF THE US.
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postulater Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-07-10 10:38 AM
Response to Original message
6. I'm thankful to say I have never filled a prescription in 59 years.
Got the lucky genes, I guess.
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katkat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-07-10 11:44 AM
Response to Original message
7. inability to get meds plus lack of publicity, I bet
It's amazing how many people don't know about legitimate Canadian pharmacies.

Also, the last time I tried to get a prescription filled, the Canadian pharmacy told me the manufacturer had stopped selling to Canadian pharmacies that filled US orders.
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brockgs Donating Member (2 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-07-10 03:30 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. So much misinformation, so few people helped
First, let me disclose that I'm Canadian and work for one of the Canadian pharmacies who were participating in the Minnesota program. It is a disappointment that the program is ending, but is by no means the end of our work to help not just Americans, but anyone around the world have access to fair choice of purchasing medications from licensed pharmacies around the world at cash purchase prices that often undercut even the premiums/co-pay many people pay through their insurance. What we set out to do by starting the industry 8 years ago was globablize pharmaceutical services, just as eBay has globalized the ability to purchase all other goods for business and people around the world. Why can't people use the Internet or a Phone to contact a licensed pharmacy in another country and price shop for the medications needed to sustain someone's life or lifestyle?

Anyhow, :-), it is a shame the program ended. I'm sure others will start up, even if not at the state level, community groups, corporations and associations can take up the mantle and organize bulk purchase agreements with Canadian pharmacies if they so chose and is their individual right.

All the best.
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aquart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-08-10 06:03 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. Thank you.
I hope the quality of your national health care never diminishes and always improves.
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